Thanks for the heads up. I will make sure to look this article over.
I just rented "Monterey Pop" on DVD and there is a brief scene where they pan across the "orchestra" seating section with the stage in the background, then they zoom in closer and go from the HR stack to the HL stack. Per side there is an Altec VOT with a multicell HF horn on top, an Altec 15" direct radiator cabinet with a 2-cell HF horn on top and (2) Altec 604 cabinets.
Shortly after that, they show John Philips listening and commenting while they test the FOH system and then they zoom in on David Crosby, who is on stage and has just spoken or hummed through the system and he turns to his muso buddies and says (soomething like): "Wow ! Incredible sound for a change !"
Unbelievable !
Now in this film (as well as in the Woodstock movie) you cannot really tell what the sound quality was like for the audience other than observing that everyone appears to be "grooving". You can certainly hear when there is feedback, which doesn't occur often at all. And the soundtrack audio was not that bad. But based on (again) crowd response, plus that of the bands, etc..... I suspect that the sound (from both the Monterey Pop and Woodstock systems) was not that bad at all and especially when you consider the low power, inefficient loudspeakers, complete lack of system alignment, lack of microphone processing, etc, etc, etc. And then also consider that there are no stage monitors.
sheesh.